The Hardest Part of Your Health & Fitness Journey: Accountability

By: Sandy Smith

Summary

It’s easy to do what’s easy when no one is looking. Find an accountability partner to make the right choice when faced with the decision between what’s right, and what is easy....

This is by far the most difficult part of living a conscious life. It's so easy to skip a workout or to sneak in a poor eating choice if nobody knows about it, right? This is why many of us need an accountability partner. An accountability partner is someone who you can check-in with, someone holding you accountable for your actions. This person should not be someone who is hard on you. If you make a poor decision, the last thing you need is someone to remind you how bad is was. Rather, this person should help pick you up and get you back to your feet, so you can make better decisions tomorrow. If you have someone you essentially have to "report" to, those poor decisions will come less and less. It's so much nicer to report "just completed a workout, eating a high protein dinner now!", opposed to "I decided not to workout today, just ate fast food for dinner". Both will happen; however, we strive to have more statements like the first (and let's never consider fast food a dinner option!).

Who could be an accountability partner? Anyone. Someone who you feel comfortable sharing this type of information with. You need to be able to tell this person about the good AND bad moments. While telling someone about all the positive moments is encouraging and uplifting; they need to know about the negative ones too. If you verbalize the negative moments, it will help you in the long run. You don't only want this partner to tell you how great you are, etc. You need them to (kindly) push and encourage you. They should be able to know when to push you to workout, and when you really may need a rest day.

Who is my accountability partner? Well, really...myself. I find this works well for me. I do tell others about my workouts and eating habits, but I am at a position now, where I hold myself accountable for my actions. How did I get to this point? It took time, effort and a lot of determination. If you're going to be your own accountability partner, you need to need to have a goal. I'm not recommending a weight loss goal. The goal could be... completing _____ workouts this week/month; running ____ miles this week/month; eating at home _____ times this week/month; etc.

For me, I focus on how many workouts I'm going to complete. I don't necessarily say for the whole month, but I always do longer than a week. A week is difficult for me, due to the fact that some weeks are busier than others. So, this could be discouraging if it's broken into weeks, keep that in mind. I normally have the time frame between something that's happening that month. For example, if I were starting this next week, I would decide how many workouts I'm going to complete before Christmas.

Take your time when deciding on your goal. Don't just think you want to workout 5 days a week and multiply that by the number of weeks, etc. Look at your schedule, calendar, other events happening, and factor in your rest days. These are all things that could be discouraging if you don't account for, because these events could impact your final goal. If you know you'll be traveling, factor that in... later down the road - factor in workouts while you're traveling!

Optional tools: dry-erase calendar. And hang it somewhere you'll see if multiple times a day. For me, this is in between my bed and bathroom. I see if many times a day, I can see it from my bed, so it's usually the second thing I see right when I wake up (the first is turning off the alarm on my phone!). Every time I complete a workout, I mark it down. It helps tremendously to see this written down right in front of you.

So... find the accountability you need. That could you, a friend, a family member, co-worker... whoever it may be, find them. They will help you more than you know.